Indonesia works to "stamp out" bird flu

West Java in Indonesia plans to "stamp out" avian influenza by
requiring poultry-raising areas to be kept separate from residential
neighborhoods.

The proposal is part of Indonesia's effort to combat the bird
flu epidemic that has caused Indonesia at least US$170 million in financial
losses since it was first reported in 2003.

The provincial administration's secretary Lex Laksmana said Thursday that the
plan, called "stamping out", would include a proposal to Governor Danny Setiawan
to issue a circular requiring residents to keep poultry in coops separate from
their houses.

"We see the need to start taking these stamping out measures because many of
our residents raise their poultry under their houses or even inside their
homes," he said

Details of the plan would soon be introduced to residents across the
province, although he did not say when it would take effect.

Currently, he said H5N1 vaccination in poultry proved successful in lowering
deaths in big and commercial farms, where vaccination could be controlled and
monitored.

But he said the virus' spread to humans continued in community farms and from
backyard chicken raising, where owners lack knowledge of hygiene and the
transmission of the virus.

"We find it necessary to introduce the regulation in West Java although it
does not have to go through a local ordinance because it would take a long time
to be drafted," he said.